Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Ambulance Service: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Robert Morton:

Regarding support, there are a number of overall HSE supports and then a number of internal supports. They focus on psychological safety and physical well-being. From a physical well-being perspective, we are developing an in-house occupational health service. In fact, after three attempts, because it is a very difficult speciality to recruit to, we have just secured a candidate who accepted an offer of a job on Monday this week. That is our first internal occupational health position, which is really important. We are in the process of recruiting a dedicated physiotherapist because one of the key areas of injury for our staff is musculoskeletal injuries. We are also recruiting a counsellor - a psychotherapist who will focus on psychological safety. We also have access to employee assistance programmes within the HSE and we have a critical incident stress management programme within the organisation. That is where we have peer supporters, that is, individual members of staff who support other members of staff. It is a highly successful model and it is very well respected by the staff. A range of supports is in place. On the Senator's piece on inclusivity, we actively support diversity. We actively staff participating in the Pride parade every year. People's needs are met insofar as we possibly can.